Caricaceae

Carica papaya L.

Description: Carica is a genus of about 20 species of evergreen trees native to tropical America. They all produce a acrid milky sap. Although described as a tree, the plant is a large herb or soft-wood tree, like the banana.
Tree to 25 feet, glabrous leaves to 2 feet across, deeply palmately 7-lobed, the lobes pinnately lobed; flowers yellowish, to 1 inch long or more, male flowers slender, long-tubed, in long-peduncled, axillary racemes to 3 feet long, female flowers broader, solitary or few together, on short peduncles; male plants sometimes bearing a few female or bisexual flowers; fruit elongate to globose, with a central cavity, greenish-yellow to orange, to 20 inches long, with thick, yellow or orange flesh, seeds many, black.
[Thai: malakaw]

Uses: Carica papaya contains an enzyme known as papain, present in the fruit, stem and leaves.The milky juice is extracted, dried and used as chewing gum, medicine (digestion problems), toothpaste and meat tenderizers. (Meat can be tenderized by wrapping it in a bruised papaya leaf before it is cooked.)
The fruit size varies from 4 to 20" and from 2 to 20 pounds. The flesh is soft and juicy, orange-yellow or salmon pink, surrounding a cavity containing numerous brown-black pea-size seeds which can be used as a spice (some people chew them). Unripe papaya can be cooked as a vegetable.

Hortus Third, LH Bailey Hortorium, 1976
California Rare Fruit Growers WWW Site